The United Nations says violence by illegal paramilitary Israeli colonizers has become a defining feature of life across the occupied West Bank, reshaping daily routines, uprooting entire communities and deepening a sense of vulnerability among Palestinians who say they no longer know when or where the next attack will come.
UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs documented more than 1,800 colonizer attacks in 2025 — a number that, on its own, he said, “speaks to the scale of the crisis.”
The attacks, he said, were recorded in roughly 280 Palestinian communities, from the quiet agricultural villages of the northern Jordan Valley to the rugged hills south of Hebron.
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) January 10, 2026
In many of these places, families describe a similar pattern: colonizer groups arriving in the early morning or late at night, torching fields, smashing windows, uprooting trees, blocking roads or assaulting residents who try to defend their land. Some incidents last minutes; others stretch for hours.
Humanitarian workers who visit these communities say the violence is not random. It follows predictable lines — targeting herding families, isolated hamlets, and agricultural areas where Palestinians depend on land access for survival.
Israeli occupation crimes in the West Bank were taking an escalating course, with systematic targeting of all aspects of life to force Palestinians off their land.
Settler gangs, protected by occupation forces and funded by the extremist government, carried out assaults against… pic.twitter.com/sJYcIHsD0o
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) January 10, 2026
In the Jordan Valley, shepherds say colonizer groups have chased them from grazing areas they have used for generations.
In the central West Bank, farmers report that their olive groves have been burned or bulldozed just before harvest.
In the south, families describe colonizers arriving with dogs, weapons or vehicles, forcing them to flee with whatever they can carry.
Dujarric said the UN has been tracking this trend for years, but the numbers recorded in 2025 show a sharp escalation.
He said the violence is “no longer sporadic or isolated,” but part of a broader environment in which Palestinians face daily harassment with little expectation of protection.
In many cases, colonizer attacks occur in areas where Palestinians have no access to emergency services, and where calls for help go unanswered.
The UN says the absence of accountability is a central factor. Dujarric noted that Israel, as the occupying power, is obligated under international law to protect the civilian population living under its control.
But Palestinians and humanitarian groups say investigations into colonizer violence rarely lead to arrests, and even fewer result in prosecutions. The result, they say, is a sense of impunity that encourages further attacks.
Aid organizations working in the West Bank say the rise in colonizer violence is compounding an already fragile humanitarian situation.
Movement restrictions, land seizures, and military operations have tightened pressure on communities that were already struggling with limited access to water, grazing land, and basic services.
In some areas, families have abandoned their homes after months of intimidation, joining a growing number of Palestinians displaced not by war, but by the slow, grinding force of daily violence.
In a mob attack on Thursday afternoon, a group of Israeli settlers beat an elderly deaf man and torched cars during a mob attack in a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank. @CNN pic.twitter.com/ScLJ8yVBso
— Ramy Abdu| رامي عبده (@RamAbdu) January 10, 2026
Humanitarian teams describe the psychological toll as severe. Parents say their children are afraid to walk to school or play outside. Farmers say they no longer sleep through the night, listening instead for the sound of vehicles approaching. Community leaders say they spend more time documenting attacks and coordinating emergency responses than tending to their own livelihoods.
Dujarric said the UN continues to call for immediate steps to curb colonizer violence, including preventing attacks, investigating incidents promptly and prosecuting those responsible.
He said these measures are essential to preventing further escalation and restoring a measure of safety for civilians who feel increasingly exposed.
The UN warns that without meaningful action, the humanitarian and security situation in the West Bank will continue to deteriorate.
The numbers, officials say, tell only part of the story. The rest is written in the lives of families who have watched their land shrink, their freedom of movement erode and their sense of safety disappear — one attack at a time.
